truck
/tɹʌk/ noun, verb
Forms trucks trucking trucked trock
- noun A small wheel or roller, specifically the wheel of a gun carriage.
- noun The ball on top of a flagpole.
- noun (nautical) On a wooden mast, a circular disc (or sometimes a rectangle) of wood near or at the top of the mast, usually with holes or sheaves to reeve signal halyards; also a temporary or emergency place for a lookout. "Main" refers to the mainmast, whereas a truck on another mast may be called (on the mizzenmast, for example) "mizzen-truck".
- noun (countable, uncountable, US, Canada, India, Australia) A heavier motor vehicle designed to carry goods or to pull a semi-trailer designed to carry goods; (in Malaysia/Singapore) a such vehicle with a closed or covered carriage. “We rented a truck big enough to carry the whole load in one trip.”
- noun (UK, rail transport) A railroad car, chiefly one designed to carry goods.
- noun Any smaller wagon or cart or vehicle of various designs, pushed or pulled by hand or (obsolete) pulled by an animal, used to move and sometimes lift goods, like those in hotels for moving luggage or in libraries for moving books.
- noun The part of a skateboard or roller skate that joins the wheels to the deck, consisting of a hanger, baseplate, kingpin, and bushings, and sometimes mounted with a riser in between.
- noun (theater) A platform with wheels or casters.
- verb (intransitive) To drive a truck. “My father has been trucking for 20 years.”
- verb (transitive) To convey by truck. “Last week, Cletus trucked 100 pounds of lumber up to Dubuque.”
- verb (intransitive, US, slang) To travel, to proceed.
- verb (intransitive, US, Canada, slang) To persist, to endure. “Keep on trucking!”
- verb (intransitive, film production) To move a camera parallel to the movement of the subject.
- verb (transitive, slang) To fight or otherwise physically engage with.
- verb (transitive, slang) To run over or through a tackler in American football.
- verb To fail; run out; run short; be unavailable; diminish; abate.
- verb To give in; give way; knuckle under; truckle.
- verb To deceive; cheat; defraud.
- verb (transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To tread (down); stamp on; trample (down).
- verb (transitive) To trade, exchange; barter.
Synonyms
lorry goods wagon freight wagon goods carriage freight carriage goods truck freight truck freight car bogie motortruck hand truck
Etymology
Perhaps a shortening of truckle, related to Latin trochus (“iron hoop, wheel”) from Ancient Greek τροχός (trokhós).
From Middle English truken, troken, trukien, from Old English trucian (“to fail, run short, deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-West Germanic *trokōn (“to fail, miss, lack”), from Proto-Indo-European *derew-, *derwu- (“to tear, wrap, reap”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to flay, split”). Cognate with Middle Low German troggelen (“to cheat, deceive, swindle”), Dutch troggelen (“to extort”), German dialectal truggeln (“to flatter, fawn”).
From dialectal truck, truk, trokk, probably of North Germanic origin, compare Norwegian dialectal trokka, trakka (“to stamp, trample, go to and fro”), Danish trykke (“to press, press down, crush, squeeze”), Swedish trycka. More at thrutch.
From Middle English trukien, from unrecorded Anglo-Norman and Old French words, from Latin trocāre, from Frankish *trokan. Related to Etymology 2.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A small wheel, as of a vehicle; specifically (Ord.), a small strong wheel, as of wood or iron, for a gun carriage.
- noun A low, wheeled vehicle or barrow for carrying goods, stone, and other heavy articles.
- verb To transport on a truck or trucks.
- verb To exchange; to give in exchange; to barter; as, to truck knives for gold dust.
Etymology [L. trochus an iron hoop, Gr. Trochee, and cf. Truckle, v. i.]
Etymology [OE. trukken,F. troquer; akin to Sp. & Pg. trocar; of uncertain origin.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “truck”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details